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Chapter 21 – Torchlight
It was 6 o’clock in the morning, mid-October.
Splash
Allen was woken up by the sound of the water jar being filled.
“Good morning, Papa.”
“Oh, you’re awake.”
For a long while, Allen couldn’t consistently wake up early in the morning, but recently, he was able to wake up at 6 a.m. without an alarm clock.
“Here you go, Honey.”
“Thanks.”
Theresia was also awake. She gave Rodan a burlap sack that had dried meat, dried potatoes, and a waterskin. Rodan slung the bag over his shoulder.
In the living room, near the hearth, there was an unfamiliar stick, about 6 feet long. It had a large, thick blade attached to the end. It was a spear made to hunt Great Boars. Last night, Rodan had carefully checked the weapon. He had borrowed it from the weapon shop the day before.
Rodan took the spear in his hand.
“Well then, I’m off.”
“Will you be out late?”
“We’ve got some newbies today, so we’ll hunt somewhere close by. I won’t be back too late.”
After saying that, he went out into the cold.
(Boar hunting… I wanna go one day. Sounds cool. And I want to level up.)
It had been six years since his reincarnation, and yet Allen was still level 1. This was because he couldn’t leave the village to go to where the monsters were. To leave, serfs had to get permission from the mayor. But, even if you ask for permission, you would almost never get it. Basically nobody was allowed out except for essential activities like Great Boar hunting. Being a serf was pretty restrictive.
So, he threw stones until he hit his daily quota.
(I think it’ll take a million throws to get to the next level. Since the last level up, I’ve already thrown it 200,000 times, but it still hasn’t gone up.)
He threw stones, and he kept throwing stones, and then he took the stones and threw them some more. Rain or shine, he threw stones. Neither of his parents expected him to keep it up everyday. Rodan talked to Gerda about it, who only said that his daughter pretended to be a knight everyday at home too! And he told Rodan that it might be better to accept things as they were.
(Normal skills just don’t seem that worth. There’s not much gain for the amount of work.)
Both his Swordsmanship and Throwing were level 3. For a new skill, it would take 10,000 repetitions to go from level 0 to level 1, 10,000 more to get to level 2, and 100k more to get to level 3. Then it would be 10 times more per level.
At this rate, even if he spent his entire life grinding it, level 4 was probably the limit. He would never make level 5. It was worth it to raise a skill if it had a large effect, like doubling in power every skill level, but it probably wouldn’t be like that.
(It’s true that my throws are stronger than when I didn’t have the skill, but it seems like it’ll only be twice as strong, overall, at level 3.)
Since there weren’t any damage numbers, he was just going off feeling. It felt like his throws were around twice as strong as when he didn’t have the skill.
(In the end, it’s better to grind my summoner skills. I’ll keep moderately working on my sword and stone skills for emergency self-defense. Also, it turns out that Grass F wasn’t just an air freshener.)
He looked at the three-foot-tall tree in front of him. It smelled like essential oils, a calming and subtle scent. He could smell it whenever he wanted.
He looked at his notes in the grimoire.
(Hmm, my MP recovery time went down, from 6 hours to 5 hours.)
After planting Grass F in the yard, Allen found that he could spend all his MP 4 times a day, up from the usual 3.
For the past 5 years, he had been grinding skill EXP every 6 hours. Since it was every 6 hours, he could do it four times everyday: Early morning, afternoon, evening, and the middle of the night. However, with this method, he could only manage 3 times or less the next day.
After planting the Grass F tree with its special ability, Aroma, Allen had been able to do it 4 times a day for 3 days in a row.
(It was too hard to do 5 times. So it’s probably not 4 hours.)
He investigated how much the recovery period had shortened, and confirmed that it was 5 hours instead of 4. This was going to speed up his EXP gain.
(So is this everything Apple can do?)
Looking at his notes in the grimoire, he summarized his investigation on Grass F.
・It smells good, and helps you sleep soundly
・MP recovery time is reduced to 5 hours
・Once you use the skill, both the card and summon disappear (they become a tree)
Unlike other summons, you could only use its skill once. Once you used it, it couldn’t be turned back into a card or creature. It became a real tree. Other people could see it, touch it, and it grew like a tree.
“Allen~ Dinner’s ready.”
“Yes, Mama!”
Since Allen had unlocked F-rank summons, there was a lot to investigate. It had been almost half a month, but he still hadn’t finished it all. In particular, he couldn’t get Beast F to Bite him, and he didn’t want it to Bite others, so it was difficult to investigate the skill.
“Beeg brudda! Come here!”
“Okay Mash, I’m coming, I’m coming.”
After being outside for more than two hours, Allen hugged Mash as soon as he entered the house. Mash was going to be 3 in a few months. He got lonely when Allen was in the yard too long.
(Throwing rocks everyday won’t be worth it unless I do it for more than an hour a day. At this rate, it’ll take more than 5 years before it levels again. And with Mash around, maybe it’s time to stop.)
He ate his sweet potato, trying to think of something that he and Mash could do together.
“Allen! Today was fun! Are you getting stronger?”
“Maybe.”
(I’m still no match for her though. Sword Saints are too strong! Ugh!)
This afternoon’s game of knights had ended. Kurena ran home the same way she had for the past 3 years. She only stayed at Allen’s house occasionally, when she got permission to sleepover.
Allen could stock 30 cards now, and maxed it out. While considering his investigations and increasing his max MP, he also raised his strength.
・BEAST F - 11 cards
・BUG F - 2 cards
・BIRD F - 2 cards
・GRASS F - 15 cards
His buffs gave him +55 ATK. Kurena, who had been playing knights with Allen everyday for past three years, noticed the change.
After he finished investigating rank F, he would mainly put his skill EXP into Enhance, so that he could enhance all his cards as soon as possible. He wanted to raise Enhance to level 3, while almost completely ignoring Synthesize and Create.
(I’m almost at Enhance level 2. It should level up tomorrow.)
Thanks to Grass F, his skill EXP was increasing at an amazing rate.
“Ah, he’s late.”
While Allen was helping her prepare dinner, Theresia murmured. Certainly, he was late. Rodan said that he would be hunting somewhere close. He would normally have returned by now.
“Yeah, Papa is late.”
They were going to have a small but lavish meal to celebrate a successful hunt, but he wasn’t back yet. Mash couldn’t wait that long, so they started eating dinner.
Dong
Dong
Dong
Another hour passed. The bell told them that it was 6 pm.
“He’s still not home…”
Naturally, Theresia was getting worried. Mash was already put to bed, and Allen went to the living room, where Theresia was.
“Allen, you don’t have to stay up. Papa has been out late hunting before.”
“But he said he’d be home early today.”
“You’re such a good boy for worrying about your Papa.”
She patted him on the head.
Another 2 hours passed. It was pitch black outside.
“Ah, looks like they’re home.”
They heard a voice from outside. Theresia and Allen peeked outside from the entryway.
In the dark of the night, a light could be seen. It looked like a torch. They had heard voices, but the light was small, and they were far away.
(Dad got home late, but I’m glad he’s safe.)
The light got closer.
Then the light split into two.
(Eh? He’s not alone?)
The lights became 3, then 4. The lights got closer and closer and split into 5, 6. Eventually there were over 10.
Someone shouted. Allen felt his chest tighten. He looked at Theresia and she looked just as uneasy.
When the lights got closer, Allen heard Gerda’s voice.
“Rodan! We’re home!! We’ve made it back to your house!!!”
Hearing Gerda’s shouts, Theresia automatically rushed towards the lights. Allen went too.
Theresia stopped. She was in disbelief. Her body trembled.
“Eh? Papa?”
In a stretcher carried by the other men, illuminated by the light of the torches, was Rodan. He was covered in blood soaked linen rags.
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Thanks for reading! 🙂
JATranslations 
Why does it feel that it was done on purpose 👿
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